UK-based Chetwoods Architects are working with HuaYan Group to prepare four masterplans in China. The team has thus released details of Phoenix Towers, a pair of supertall structures which act as the centrepiece for one of these developments: an environmental masterplan for Wuhan.

At 1km in height, Phoenix Towers would be the tallest pair of towers in the world upon completion, equalling the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed Kingdom Tower in Jeddah. The duo is due to be located on an island within a lake as part of a 47-hectare site.

A statement from HuaYan Group reads: “We aim to pioneer our new vision via a programme of cultural and creative dialogue and collaboration, embracing a new era and new eclectic style that will make the best of China even better.”

Chetwoods Architects’ concept draws on the symbol of the Chinese Phoenix, an entity that combines both the male (Feng) and female (Huang), alongside the Yin/Yang form to represent perfect balance. The result is a pair of interdependent towers whereby the Feng tower ‘feeds’ the Huang tower with renewable power in a symbiotic process.

Wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, thermal chimneys and rainwater harvesting work in partnership with biomass boilers and hydrogen fuel cells at ground level to generate the power required to support the towers as well as contributing to the wider community.

Chetwoods Architects details: “The scheme will provide an environmental catalyst to re-invigorate the city of Wuhan, actively avoiding the disastrous consequences of developments elsewhere in China. It will form the nucleus of wider green strategy linking Wuhan’s lakes environmentally and socially with the region’s landmark destinations and lake district, along a 20km Green Wall of China to a new lakeside cultural tourist destination.”